Yeah! Finally, It’s about time. A Cristopher Nolan’s Bat-Joker movie! I’ve been waiting for this flick from the time I saw Jack Nicholson …err…paint his face white. I just anticipated another Joker movie, ‘coz after the vampire Ra’s al Ghul, Joker is the most lived villian in Batman…and he is, no doubt, the greatest nemesis Batman has ever faced.
The Joker’s origin is kinda confusing. He first appeared in Batman #1 in 1940. If you ask the joker himself about his origins, he would say, “Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another… if I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!” But sadly no one else doesn’t. I, for one, am happy with one of the various origins that sprouted out through various versions of the Batman. And I would like to stick to the one revealed in Batman Confidential(#7 to #12). Jack is a guy, bored with his work, and obsessed with Batman. To attract his attention, this chap breaks into a musuem, and injures many people. One of them happen to be Lorna Shore, the lady Bruce Wayne has been dating. Bats comes to the scene, puts a batarang to his face, and puts him in the middle of some serious trouble. Jack ends up killing some thugs, while the Toxins from the chemical plant where all this fight is happening, happened to spill over Jack, and Viola! We got Joker!!
Joker is the greatest psycho in Batman series, whether it is Detective Comics, Hush, Animated Series, The Nail series, Elseworld series. You name it, he has been there! But then, the Joker proved his mettle when he killed off Jason Peter Todd, the second and the least popular Robin, in ‘A Death in the Family’ storyline. However, he also killed Tim Drake, the Boy Wonder, the third robin in the ‘Nail’ series, an alternate storyline, in front of Batman. The dark Knight saw Tim die helplessly as Joker electrocuted him.
Now, back to the latest Joker. Yes, Heath Ledger. He completed filming his role as the Joker in this movie, shortly before dying, on January 22, 2008, from an accidental prescription drug overdose at age 28. His final film performance, uncompleted at the time of his death, is the role of Tony in Terry Gilliam’s forthcoming film ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’. Both the directors, Cristopher Nolan and Terry Gilliam, intend their films to celebrate and pay tribute to Ledger’s work in them. Let us all pray for that great soul who delivered to us various characters in various blockbuster hits.
The rest of the cast include Cristain Bale as the forever scared Dark Knight, Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent( the attorney who ends up as Two-Face), Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes, Gary Oldman as Lieutenant James Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.
In Ledger’s words, Joker is “psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy”. We know that will turn out fine.
So, people, why wait! Youtube the promo! and “WHY SO SERIOUS?”
Till then see the Theatrical Trailer…
ipsissima verba! 